10/08/2013 13:00
Benedicte Maaseide continues the saga of Beach Volleyball legends
2013 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Vilnius, Lithuania, August 10, 2013. Norway’s Benedicte Maaseide is one of the few people who knows, at only 17 years of age, what it is like to be a sports legend. “It is in the family”, said the player competing at the CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship being held in Vilnius.
When your father is one the greatest Beach Volleyball stars of all times and a true pioneer, you learn at early age the wonders, sensations and penances involved in becoming one of the biggest names in the history of the sport. Benedicte Maaseide, despite her youthfulness, has gathered such a great range of experiences that at 17 years of age she owns the poise reserved only to the real heirs of sports stardom. For those who are still wondering, Benedicte’s parents are Bjorn Maaseide, Beach Volleyball legend and European champion in 1994, and her aunt is Kathrine Maaseide Dahl-Andersen, also a top international player.
“I was born when my father was a Beach Volleyball professional, and I’d travel with him to all these tournaments. Thanks to that, I had the opportunity to travel all over the world”, said the younger of the saga. “I lived for some time in California, in Tenerife, in Brazil”.
Benedicte also joined her father on his stages abroad, while the former player prepared his participation in the biggest events of international Beach Volleyball in periods that often stretched up to four or five months. Living out of suitcases and in foreign countries may be hard for some, especially while growing up. Not for Benedicte, who soon learned to enjoy the benefits of these unique experiences. “I would be sad for having to leave my friends at home, but then, they would say ‘What are you going to remember the most, four months at home or four months in Brazil?’. They were right!” comments the player who will turn 18 next Monday. The hazards usually associated to constantly change post addresses did not have an impact on the young Maaseide who claims to have a natural ability to adapt herself to new environments. “I am very spontaneous, I am not shy, so it wasn’t hard for me to live in all these places, more on the contrary, I love that I have had all these experiences”, states the Norwegian player.
Travelling: that did it for her to decide to take the family path. “The fact that you could do this for a living, you know, being in all these places, I think it is incredible. And you get to make it by doing what you love”, says the player, on the brink of qualifying for the final rounds in Vilnius. “I want to do this (Beach Volleyball) for the travelling but also for the feeling of winning”.
The athlete who is part of Topvolley Norge, the grassroots program for Volleyball in Norway, probably got this winning attitude from his father. Her genes didn’t play a role in her decision to take Beach Volleyball, though. “I did gymnastics and I played handball for a long time. I would play Volleyball at home but it wasn’t until three years ago when I decided to take up Beach Volleyball seriously”.
Some would say that having such a successful path mapped for you would be hard to live up to, but Benedicte disagrees. “I think it is very positive that I have this background because I know what I have waiting for me”, declares the player who nowadays trains three times a day in her center in Norway. Does her father give her a lot of advice and tips about the sport? “We usually speak about the mental part, how to focus, how to stay strong mentally, not the technical part, he leaves that for the coaches”.
Regardless of what some non believers may think, the name is left behind before entering the court and as she acknowledges, it is her who fights on the sand. “No, the other players usually do not care and they do not ask me about it. Sometimes a coach from other teams comes and asks me if my father is Bjorn and I say yes, and they tell me ‘I met your father here or there, please send him my warmest regards’. Then I send a text to my father about it. It makes him very happy”. Now it is time for her to make a name for herself in the sport. So far, the young Norwegian has demonstrated that like father, like daughter, since Maaseide has won the Nordic Beach Volleyball Championships U19, U18 and U17, and finished ninth at the FIVB U20 World Championship last year, making the young player one of the most promising figures of the sport in the Nordic country. “My parents always tell me that I have no idea about how hard it is to succeed in this sport. I am ready to try”.
Follow the action of the tournament this Sunday live on LAOLA1.tv
Click here for more information, including detailed schedule and results.
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